Memorial Day Weekend 2006

WHEW! Where did the weekend go! We had a blast this past weekend! We went down to our family's cottage, and spent 2 nights. The traffic going down was just horrible! It seemed like everyone was going north, and its a good thing that we were going south!..LOL We arrived Saturday afternoon at my parents. The weather.. well it rained on and off, but it was hot!

Brian, my mom and I arrived at the cottage about 3pm. and met up with Glen, Lisa, and their daughter, Katie. Amy, Natalie, and Kaylee arrived not too much longer after we did. We hung around the cottage for a bit, and decided to go shopping, and grocery shopping. Well we (Mom, Amy, Nat, & Kaylee) only made it shopping, and decided to keep the grocery shopping till Sunday afternoon - since the plan was to go out to eat on Sat evening and Sunday for breakfast. I got some more fabric to make a quilt. Natalie picked out her colors for her quilt - which is going to be a Disney Princess quilt (go figure!). Picked up a new charcoal grill for the cottage (cause its hard to do the cooking on the campfire). Found out that the Five Little Monkeys song can hurt.. LOL Natalie sings the song, but when she gets to the "no more monkeys jumping on the bed" - well that is her cue to poke her finger at you.. LOL well it caught me off guard, and I think it left a bruise.. LOL! While in Walmart there was a good down pour of rain, so it got it out of system by the time we got back to the cottage. When we got back, Lisa and I put the grill together, leave it to the woman!

Saturday night, Dad and Conway showed up about 7pm, and we went for dinner soon after. We went past a campgrounds... OH WOW, they were packed like sardines! I couldnt camp like that.. be able to spit at the neighbors.. LOL. We had a nice dinner, and of course it started thunder and lightening. We got back to the cottage about 10p, and Amy, Nat, and Kaylee went home for the night. The rest of us watched alittle tv, and had an early night.

Sunday morning, Dad, Mom, Brian, I, Glen, Lisa, Katie, Scott, Jenny, and Conway went for breakfast at our usual Sunday morning resturant we eat at when we are at the cottage. When we were returned to the cottage, Mom and I went to get groceries. When we got back we unloaded the truck, and just hung out. I was about to fall asleep, until Amy and the girls arrived. We had a blast riding around on 4wheelers and the golf cart! I must have put on about 10 miles just going around the yard with Conway and Natalie! But the two kids had a fun time.. they kept wanting more (of course Aunt Kim did also!) We rode so much that we ran out of gas.. LOL Sunday evening, I grilled out on the grill, and we had a little picnic out on the back of the truck bed. We sat around the campfire some (it was too hot to really enjoy it). I remember going to bed, but I dont remember falling asleep, cause I slept just about everything that happen during the night.. kids crying and all.


Monday morning, Mom made breakfast for us all. And we hurried off to the parade in Redgranite. The parade was nice, but it was too short. We went back to the cottage, and began to pack for home. We left about 1pm, and we got home just before 5pm, the traffic was worse than the trip down. So glad we were going north.. LOL

Posted are pictures from the weekend. I have pics of one of my niece, but I dont think that her daddy wants me to show her off, cause of a comment that he made. So I have to respect the wishes. Oh well.

Hooray For The USA

In honor of Memorial Day - I wanted to stitch something patriotic. And this adorable design kept saying.. Stitch me! So I did. I had started it last Thursday night, so I could have a "jump" on the stitching for the weekend, as there are times in the past when I "wished" I had something to do - but with the nieces and nephew.. who had time!?!?

I only took the design out once - just to show my mom what I was doing. And back in the bag it went. And I never touched it again all weekend. This morning we had some thunderstorms go thru, so I stitched. And I was able to finish.

This adorable design is from Lizzie*Kate called "Hooray For The USA", stitched on hand dyed 14ct aida, which I found in my stash.

AHHHHHHH!!!!!

I just got home awhile ago.. and Im so excited! I'm on a four day stretch of days off! WOOHOOO! As everyone (which it seemed like coming home from work tonight) is going north.. and Brian and I are heading south in the morning! I cant wait! Been waiting for this since about last August! Im soooo looking forward to getting outside and sitting around the campfire, having a brew, and relaxing!

So we will be at our family cottage in Pine River. Have a fun weekend! Will be posting pictures when we get home!

Quilting.. what's that?!?!

Somebody please tell me I need to do some quilting, cause as of right now there are NO quilting pics on the main page of the blog! EEK!

I haven't worked on a quilt in like so long! I think that I finally finished the Firetruck log cabin quilt about a few weeks ago. Today I went to go and drop it off to get quilted.. forgot the batting for the quilt.. LOL (see that's how bad I've gotten.. forgetting the materials that are needed to make a quilt.) But I haven't started anything lately... should get back in the swing of it all!

So please beg me to get back to quilting!.. LOL

Peace On Earth - Lizzie*Kate

Ok, I know its like the wrong season to be stitching something for winter.. not that I want to rush the seasons or anything.. LOL

This finish is from my favorite designer, Lizzie*Kate, its called Peace On Earth. I stitched it on 14ct Navy aida. I started it last week Wednesday. This was my second time using a Qsnap. Loved the fact that I didnt have to stop and adjust the material so I could stitch on it - since thats what happens when I work with the scroll frames. Might have to convert to Qsnaps. :)

Woodland Snowfall - LHN

With the snow on Thursday, and with finishing the big model, I thought I would stitch something out of the ordinary.. LOL. Well I have been thinking about stitching something for winter or Christmas. I picked up the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament 2004 magazine, and started to page thru it. I came across this adorable design from Little House Needleworks (LHN) called Woodland Snowfall, and just had to stitch it! Its stitched on some scrap 14ct aida I had here. I'm guessing the color is taupe.

I started it on Saturday night while watching King Kong... stitched on it some while watching Ladder 49 (which I just got to watch the first 47 minutes of it, till we were called away to go and rescue Bri's BIL & SIL with car troubles). Stitched again on it while watching Surreal Life 6 finale. And I stitched and finished it tonight after getting home from work.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Hi Mom ~ Happy Mother's Day! Wish we were there to celebrate the day with you, but we will be there in less than 2 weeks! Cant wait to sit around the campfire and have a grand ole time with the kids!

With all our love!
~Kim & Brian~

Model finished!

YEA! I finished a model for Moonflower Designs. I was so excited about stitching it.. and I received it on Saturday, started it on Sunday night after I got home from work. Had off on Monday - so I stitched most of the day away. Stitched on Wednesday after I got home from work. Stitched again on it on Thursday, and Friday - (I have 4 days off this week (took an extra day off for another reason, but I extended the deadline, so it gave me plenty of time to stitch!)). I told Brian that I was going to have it finished before I go to bed tonight. Well I finished about an hour ago! Emailed the designer, and sent pictures of the finish. The design dimensions were about 7 5/8" X 16 1/4". You might think that is big, but it was the way the design was "laid-out"

I will post a pic of the model as soon as I get permission, but I will more likely have to wait till the model is released. (I have to send it back yet, and the finished will be framed.)

So Im doing a happy dance here!

MP3 Player - Vent

ARGH! I've been wanting to try a MP3 Player.. figured that with the *nice* weather in the future, and with camping coming up *soon*.. LOL It would be cool to have a MP3 player.

~BEGIN VENT~
Last week in the local ad for the grab your buck store.. I noticed that they had a Mp3 player for $24.99, I thought oh cool, cheap enough to see if I like it or not. A week ago Sunday - Brian and I went up to this store.. and I had thought about buying the Mp3 player (since it was in the ad that we got on Saturday). We went back to the electronics area - and I was looking for this MP3 player, and wanting to get one. We couldn't find it.. didn't even have it in the display. So I asked the lady, if they had the Mp3 player that was in this weeks ad.. and where I could find it. Her reply was "did it come with the Trader".. and I replied "yes". Well come to find out.. that the ad that I had seen was for a same store in a different area, and the store we were at didn't start the ad till Monday. No big deal.

A week ago Friday, we went back to the store to purchase the MP3 player. We see the ad sign, but didn't see it anywhere. We went to the front to the registers to ask for some assistance. Talked with the clerk, and she was going to get some help for us. We went back to the electronic department, and waited. And waited, and waited. So I thought heck I will go and find the clerk that I saw on the other side of the store when we came in. I saw her and said that I need some assistance in the electronic dept, and that I wanted the MP3 player that was on sale. "The shipment never came in, and that you will need to get a raincheck." No big deal, went to the service counter and filled out a rain check form.

Tonight - Brian had to do a snuff run, so I tagged along and brought the raincheck for the MP3 player. We did our shopping, and I went to the electronic dept, and saw that they had the MP3 player in the locked display. When we were finished with our shopping, we get to the check out, and I said that I had a raincheck for the MP3 player that was on sale last week. The girl went back and got the MP3 player.

After finally relaxing I thought I would play a little with the MP3 player, and see what its like. Opening the package I cut my finger on the plastic, proceeded by putting the batteries in, installed the software, plugged the USB cord into the laptop and MP3 player. Come to find out the laptop does not recognize the MP3 player. After about 15 minutes I finally (amazingly) get the laptop to recognize the MP3 player. I download the music to the MP3 player (which took about 5 minutes). I unplugged the MP3 player from the laptop, go to turn the MP3 player on. NOTHING! Read the troubleshoot section, changed the batteries, and put it down to read more of the troubleshooting section. I glance at the player, and its on!

I thought oh cool, lets hear some music! I push the play button, I hear a 'pop' sound. I thought "oh bunk". After a few seconds... the screen says "NO FILES".. umm I just spent 5 min downloading music. Nope nothing there... plug it back into the laptop to read the music. After a struggle of getting the laptop to nicely recognize the MP3 player. I downloaded a few songs to see if I can get it to work. NO FILES again on the MP3 player.

I'm now taking the MP3 player BACK for a refund! In the process of pushing the button to power on the MP3 player - it is now sitting inside the MP3 player!

And to think this player is $42.99 regularly! "Crap, just crap"

~VENT OVER~

Freezing Rain

All day long we have been having freezing rain - I guess its better than having snow... but I think that Mother Nature is mixed up on the date.

And if the weather people are right this stuff is suppose to turn into blizzard like conditions over night! Last night when I got home work, we moved the vehicles so they werent under the big willow trees that we have in our yard.

About the power outage - we were with out power for an hour. I just had sat down to start stitching, and I thought umm I guess its alittle darker than I thought.. but it was like the they were listening.

OMG the power just went out again! It was like coming on, going off... flickering the lights.. The tv was going on and off. Good thing for dial up and laptop battery! Hope it aint too long now... good thing I made dinner already!

Oh well I thought I would post some pictures of what it looked like outside about 15 minutes ago.

Lost Power

Oh lovely - as I was sending my last email, we lost power do to the freezing rain storm.
Im on the laptop with a battery, and dial up (one good thing about dial up!)

Good thing its bright enough to stitch... for now.

ILCS - Secret Sister

The mail lady came to the door just alittle while ago (poor thing almost slipped on the porch steps cause we are having freezin rain today).. there was this really cool looking package and I thought I would open it up first.

Michelle (I could just give you a huge hug!) was my secret sister! She has been an awesome SS this whole exchange!

With this package- inside I found "Stars and Stripes Forever" from Bent Creek, along with hand dyed floss - Harvest Basket (in the card Michelle said that all the WDW floss that I had received went with this design (WOOHOO! I've been eyeing this design for sometime.. been wanting to dye some tea color fabric.. now here is my chance!). I also received "Of Woods & Wilderness" by Dragon Dreams along with all the floss (21 skeins) - thanks so much!

Michelle made me this GOURGEOUS scissors fob, and counting pin set. THANKS SO MUCH! Even in the sting of beads is a moose! Love it! She also sent a magnet with a deer on, and for the stitched gift - I just love it! - is a stand up design with beautiful stitching including a charm of an owl!

Thanks so much Michelle - you have been a wonderful SS stitching, and thanks for making my 1st SS exchange exciting and wanting me to do it again!

Weather

Geez - take 2 days off from work to catch up on the yard work... and what is it doing today?!?!!

We are having freezing rain! And its only 34 degrees now! Was suppose to snow, but I heard
on the radio this morning, that we are suppose to get about an 1" of rain today.

Ick! Oh well I guess I will have to work on my model I have been working on - like its not a
big deal.. (evil grin) LOL

Xstitch block ~ Shari's block

I stitched this block for a friend, Shari. She is making a quilt. And I volunteered to stitch a block for her. She is doing an ABC quilt. Im contributing the "X" for x-stitch.

It was a fast stitch, I started it last night, and finished it around 1pm. (Yes I did sleep last night.. LOL)

Completed - Life's A Stitch

A finish for a SAL Exchange theme was Lizzie*Kate - snippet. My partner sent me the Life's A Stitch design. I stitched this with DMC floss on evenweave.

I got the courage up to sit down tonight and finish the border. Im so glad that this design is finished. It was an easy stitch - till I got to the satin stitching.. man were they time consuming! Had to make sure you were accurate - or I had to frog the stitches to get it right (which I did many times).

Now this design is going back to its owner (Debra in IN). And I will be awaiting the arrival of mine completed design.. which is the same design.